Refrigerator car



July 24, 192s. l 1,678,421

H. CORBLN REFRIGERATOR GAR Filed May 9. 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 F191. Fig d I July 24, 192s. 1,678,421

H. CORBLIN REFRIGERATOR CAR -Filed May 9, 1927 2 sheets-sheet 2 WQ la,

Patented July 24, 19281 UNIT-EDT'STATES HENRI CRBLIN, OF PARIS, FRANCE.

REFRIGERATOR CAR.

Application led May 9, 1927, Serial No. 190,026, and in France May 14, 1926.

Refrigerator cars have their walls suitably heat-insulated; they may have at each end a certain quantity of ice which is-arranged in kinds of metal-cages, in apertured chests or a in wing-fitted tanks.

lThe natural circulation of the air is ensured in these refrigerator cars by means of v a partition placed in front of the refrigerating systems; this partition, which is more or llo less thick and is a bad conductor of heat, is open or cut away at its upper end and at-its lower part, in such a way that the relatively hot air enters by the upper apertures, is cooled in Contact with the ice or the metal wall, and becoming denser, passes out by the lower aperture in lthe partition.

This circulation ofair is necessarilyslow;

lli

lits feeble activity is concentrated lin the.

vicinity of the partitions, that is to say, in front and rear of the Acar or wagon; it reaches with difficulty merchandise or commodities arranged in the middle of the car, especially when such articles areheaped up or stacked upon one another as is the custom.

lt is well known and easily understood that in the majority of cases, an active circulation of the air is necessary to obtain a rapid cooling and a proper preservation of the commodities placed in cold storage compartments.

ft has already been proposed to effect this forced circulation of air by means of ra fan which is actuated by one of the axles of the car and is in communication with pipes which cause a large volume of air to pass over the refrigerating systems and. the

merchandise or commodities located in the car. e

in accordance with the present invention, shutters or registers, which regulate or control certain of the openings 'formed in the walls arranged in front of the refrigerating systems, are actuated at the time of the travel of the wagon and therefore during the operation of the fan, in such a way as to mask these openings and to compel the air, passing through other openings in these partitions, to circulate solely through the pipes bordering upon or communicating with these refrigerating systems and the merchandise or commodities as soon as the train assumes a certain speed, whilst these shutters or registers uncover these openings and restore the natural circulation of the air during stoppages in the travel of the wagon.

These shutters or registers are, preferably, operated by an arrangement which is driven by one\of the axles of the car under .the influence of centrifugal force,in such a way as to bring these shutters or registers into operation as soon as the speed of travel of the car reaches a previously determined rate.

In thev case of a forced circulation of air, without utilizing these shutters, a very large part of the heat-exchange surfaces either that of the 1ice, or of the vessels, is not utilized, whilst these surfaces are always in practice too small; on the other hand, during the forced circulation, the air is distributed along free passages around therefrigerating systems, directly returning to the intake orifices without actually reaching the merchandise, because nothing compels it to do so. This air is not properly passed through the pipes and distributed as is necessary.; there is a, stirring u rather than a circulation of air and the object is not attained.

lt is not the same thing when, according to this invention regulating shutters are introduced. In fact, when lthese are closed, the air has only one free passage; it is forced to lick all the refrigerating surfaces and returns to the intake casings only through the commodities, or. inversely; by means of a grating placed upon thepipes and supporting the merchandise or commodities, these latter can be, to some considerable extent, well ventilated. A

ln order to ensure the preservation or the preliminary `refri ,feration .of commodities or goods in stations or depots, the fan, which creates the forced circulation of air between the refrigerator systems and the goods, can be actuated during stoppages of the refrigerator car, by means of a suitable small auX-Y iliary motor; one might also renew several times, if necessary, the supply of ice in the troughs or chests'with or without the addition of salt.

rlhe annexed drawing represents by way of example one form of carrying out the object of the invention.

Figure l is av view 1n longitudinal vertical .section of one of the end parts of a refrigerator car according to the invention.

Fig. li is a longitudinal vertical section' through the center of the cal'.

section showing the ventilator fan and the" arrangement which actuates the shutters under the influence of centrifugal force, namely, a section on line 4-4 of Figure 3, and on a larger scale.

Figure 5 is a view in horizontal section on line 5-5 of Figure 4.

At each of the ends of the car or wagon, Figure l, furnished with a well insulated wall a, there is arranged an ice .chest or similar container b which` is separated from the middle partof the car, which latter is intended to contain the commodities or goods, by means of a vertical partition c; this last mentioned is separated from the roof of the car by an opening orv cut away part Z and comprises at its lower part apertures c1, which can be covered or uncovered by means of shutters e e1 sliding in guides between the partitions c of wood, and also metal sheets 02 arranged at a small distance from the partitions c and parallel to the latter.

Below each of the containers b there is an air casing f extending preferably across the whole width of the car, see Figures 2 and 3; these two casings f deliver at their other ends, see Figures 3 and 4e, into one of the compartments'g of a sheet metal container t; the other compartment z' of this container is connected with two casings which extend the whole length of the refrigerator car and below the commodities;

the casings f and j are provided with orifices of a suitable of air.

The container ZL is fitted in the fioor boards or lower part of the car and is covered at its upper part by a cap or lid h1, fitting above the casings f and j; in Figure 3, this lid is supposed to have been removed to show the compartments of the container andhthe casings which are connected therewit Between the compartments g and z' of the container 7L. there rotates a reversible fan Z mounted upon the shaft Z1, journaled in the walls of the container i and rotated at a suitable speed from one of the axles of number for the passage the car by means of any suitable transmis.

sion gear (not shown). According to the direction of travel of the refrigerator car,

the fan turns in one direction or the other, and 1t `-creates a circulation of air through v, the pipes or casings f and j and the compartments g and i of the container It, either starting from the refrigerator systems b towards they merchandise or from the merchandise towards the refrigerating systems; the result is the same in either case, and the air is supplied to the merchandise or commodities either by suction or by pressure.

Below the sheet metal container it is journalled a hollow shaft m1 connected to the shaft Zl of the Ventilating fan Z by a .suitable transmission device,'for example a belt; this shaft m1 is provided with an arrangement m similar to a ball governor. lVhen the balls m2, which are pivoted upon the sleeve m, separate from the axis of rotation of the shaft m1 under the influence of centrifugal force, the bell crank levers ma carrying these balls m2 bea-r at their free end upon a slider n which is guided in longitudinal grooves in the hollow shaft m1; this slider n., subjected to the action of a. returning spring nl, is made fast with a rod n.2 movable axially of the shaft m1, and at the extremity of this rod n2 is a ball-,thrust device n3 which bears upon the smaller arm 01 of a bell crank lever o which is pivoted upon a verticalaxis o2.

YV hen the train attains speed and consequently the movement of rotation of the axle and of the shaft m1 increases, the balls n2 move away from the axis of rotation of the shaft m1 by reason of centrifugal force; the ball-thrust n3 of the rod n2 moves forward a slight distance under the action of the slider n, thereby pushing back the smaller arm o1 of the lever o; the extremity of the large arm o3 of the lever o, which naturally moves to a much greater extent is connected to two traction cables p and g, which are operated to close the shutters fitted to the partitions c at the' two ends of the refrigerator car; one of these cables p passes directly to one .of the extremities of the car whilst the other cable q passes around the jockey-pulley g1 before proceeding to the other extremity of the car.

The cable p, after having passed over the roller p1, is .attached to one of the shutters e1 Awhich is suspended from a cable 4', the latter passing over rollers r1, and to the free end of this cable 1' is attached a counter'- weight 112; the other shutter e is suspended from a cable s which after having assed over rollers s1 '(see Figure 2) is attac ed to the run of the cable 7 which, as above stated, is tted with a counterweight. This counterweight may be replaced by a spring, if desired. The arm o3 of the bell crank lever o, assuming the position shown in dotted lines in Figure 5, under the action of the centrifugal governor m m2, exerts a pull on the cables p and g when the train attains speed; the cable p causes the shutter e1 to descend 4and said shutter thereupon masks the corand the shutter e also falls under the action of its own weight and masks the corresponding opening c1 in the partition.

When the train stops, centrifugal force no longer acts on the balls m2 and the latter are brought closer to the shaft m1 by means of the spring n.1, which pushes back the slider n and consequently the lever m3 whlch carries the halls m2; the arm 013 of the lever 0 is returned to the original position (shown in full lines in Figure 5); the pull on the cable p ceases and the shutters e e1 are raised by the action of the counterweight r2 and uncover the openings c1 in the partition.

lt is the same for the openings in the partition arranged 'at the other extremity of the refrigerator car in front of the refrigerator system, which openings are masked or uncovered by the shutters under the action of the cable g.

When the shutters mask the openings in the partitions, there is created a forced circulation of air between the chambers, limited by' the partitions around the refrigerator systems, and the space occupied by the merchandise' or commodities in the wagon or car, by means of the air pipes or casings f and j connected with the ventilating fan; on the other hand, as soon as these openings inthe partitions are. again uncovered hy the shutters, the natural circulation of air is restored, the air passing both through the upper opening all of the partition and the lower apertures 01.

In order to enure the tight closing of the aperture c1 :by tie shutters e e1, the latter slide between the sheet metal c2 situated behind the partition c, and rubber headings c3 arranged all round the openings c1 in the partition, and in grooves in the latter. The shutters are formed from sheets of metal sliding behind the apertures in the partitions, these apertures being preferably protected by a grid or grating.

The arrangement acting on the shutters during the rotation of the axle and leaving them free when the train stops, can be replaced by any other suitable arrangement. For example, there may be utilized a cylindrical boxmovahle around an axis which is rotated by one of the axles of the ywagon and in the interior of which box there rotate p two masses connected to this axle, but capable of separating from one another so as to rub against the interior wall of the box when this axle reaches a certain speed. Under this frictional action, the box is driven hy the rotating axle and if the traction cables acting upon the shutters areconnected to this box, they Yare wound either upon the latter or upon a small auxiliary drum and close the shutters; at-the end of their movement, they immobilize the box in which the masses continue to turnbut now rubbing idly, whichentails a certain expenditure of same direction for the forced circulation of air in the refrigerator car, in spite of the change in the direction of travel o f the latter, it is easy to actuate, by a suitable cam mounted upon the shaft m1 of the centrifugal governor m m2, a two-plate clutch or a coupling device with two belts, the one straightand the, other crossed. rIhis clutch or coupling brings into engagement one or other disc, or the one or the other belt, Vaccording to whether the axle of the wagon turns in one direction or in the other, and. in such ammanner'as to maintain always the same direction of rotation of the fan..

The refrigerator car which forms the subject -of the present invention is supposed to vserve especially for high speed or express lower speed. However, if the car is forwarded or run sometimesvas an express car and sometimes as a slower moving car on the same journey, and if it is wished to cause the fan to work approximately always at the same speed, it is equally possible to achieve this result hyY utilizing a second centrifugal governor similar to the first but which comes into action only at a certain speed of rotation ofthe axle; this governor causes a clutch device to come into operation which drives a belt connecting two conical pulleys of which one operates the Ventilating an. Y

These somewhat complicated arrangements, easily carried out by ordinaryrmechanical means, nevertheless do not appear be useful in practice.

This manipulation of the shutters might also he obtained by means of hinged or pivoted panels mounted upon the roof or below the car, which panels are inclined as soon as the .train moves forward by reason of the air resistance; but these panels would he necessarily large and therefore cumbersome and moreover, their inclination would depend not only on the speed of the train 'but also on the direction and the force of the wind blowing in the direction of travel, or sideways, or from ahead; consequently, the manipulation of the shutters would no longer he ensured solely by the movement forward or the stoppage of the refrigerator car which is an indispensable condition with the movable panels a strong wind mightv close the shutters of the partitions and suppress the natural circulation.

What I claim is: Y

1. A refrigerator car comprising Vice-containers arranged at the ends of the car, translos verse partitions adjacent said ice containers extending upwardly from the car floor and terminating shortof the roof thereof, apertures at the bottom of said partitions adapted to allow of natural circulation of air between the end and middle portions of the car, shutters slidably mounted upon said partitions and adapted to close said bottom apertures, a rotary fan driven by an axle of said car for forced circulation of air, air casings between said middle portions of said car and the vicinity of said ice-containers, and enclosing said rotary fan, and means lfor automatically moving said shutters to their aperture-closing position as soon as the speed of travel of the train reaches a predetermined rate and for automatically Inoving said shutters to their aperture-uncovering position during stoppage of the car.

2. refrigerator car comprising ice-containers arranged at the ends of the car, transverse partitions adjacent said ice containers extending upwardly from the car floor and terminating short of the roof thereof, apertures at the bottom of said partitions adapted to allow of natural circulation of air between the end and middle portions of the lcar, shutters slidably mounted upon said partitions and adapted to close said bottom apertures, a rotary fan driven by an axle of said car for forced circulationof air, air casings between said middle portion of said car and'the vicinity of said ice-containers, and enclosing said rotary fan, and means for automatically moving said shutters to their aperture-closing position as soon as .the speed of travel of the train reaches a predetermined rate and for automatically moving said shutters to their aperture-uncovering position during stoppage of the car7 said means comprising an arrangement, actuated by one of the axles of the car under the inluence of centrifugal force, and operative connections between said centrifugal arrangement and said shutters.

ln testimony whereof It have signed my name to this specification.

HENRI CORBLIN. 

